Ole Kirk Christiansen, who established his workshop in Billund in Denmark in 1932, manufactured wooden toys and furniture. His business was not very lucrative and he struggled through the early 1930s. In 1934, he began to concentrate on toys and changed the name of the business to LEGO. It’s an abbreviation of “leg godt”, the Danish word that means “play well”.
In the 1960s, the company expanded to other Nordic countries. The company also invented a smaller brick that was suitable for smaller hands, and named it DUPLO in honor of the Latin word duplex (two-fold). This allowed children to create more detailed models.
In the 1970s, Lego began to introduce new features that would make its products stand out from the competition. They added different faces to the minifigures. This made the minifigures appear more real and allowed them to express different facial expressions and emotions. The Lego Group added wheels to their bricks that allowed the creation of vehicles and other machines.
The next major step for the company came when it introduced dedicated themes — a system within the systems that allowed users to design their own world or situation. This allowed the company to increase its brand’s recognition and helped them appeal to an audience that was younger. Additionally the company expanded its production, opening factories in South Korea, Malaysia, and Brazil.
https://lego-x.com/2020/01/16/lego-company-history-production-features